Hello all,
Naanna (Prasad Komarraju) has finally recorded the first 12 chapters of Geetha Gaanam. As you may all know Geetha Gaanam is his freeverse translation of Bhagavad-Gita into Telugu.
BTW, Archive.org is a great place for you to host unlimiated amount of audio/visual material - as long as you aren't committing any copyright violations that is :) I would also recommend you to not upload loads of unnecessary podcasts to this place. You can do that, instead, at Podomatic.com.
Sunday, November 13, 2005
Monday, November 07, 2005
The West Wing
I like politics; naturally I was drawn towards 'The West Wing', the TV show on NBC. I only watched few episodes of the show in the past seasons. When the new season started I was delighted to see that the producers chose one of my favorite actors to play the presidential candidate. Ergo, I have been watching 'West Wing' religiously (with Tivo's help).
In the 'West Wing', it's time for presidential elections. The primaries are over, congressman, Matt Santos (Jimmy Smits) won the Democratic primary and he is mainly campaigning on 'education'. Senator, Arnold Vinic (Alen Alda) has won the Republican nomination and he wants to cut taxes.
Last Sunday was the debate time for the both leaders. 'West Wing' pulled a stunt, (for lack of a better word) by having the debate aired live on NBC with 1 or 2 minute breaks. In a surprising move (hinted in previous episode) both candidates proposed to put the rules aside, and debate like president Lincoln and Douglas. I agree that such a fiasco would never be a real life thing, however it was written very well, and superbly acted. I don't like what Republicans stand for, however on Sunday senator, Vinic (Alen Alda) made it very heard for me to hate their ideology. The producers of the show were very successful in making both the candidates very much likeable.
As far as the debate was concerned, I thought senator Vinic won it. However, as you can see on NBC.com 70% say that Santos won, and Vinic 29%.
NBC: West Wing - Show website
The Washington Post: Who Won the 'West Wing' Live Debate?
The Washington Post: A Debatable Ploy by NBC - I don't agree with the author's take
Friday, November 04, 2005
Physicists Oppose U.S. Policy on Using Nuclear Weapons
http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/physicists_oppose_u_s_policy_on_nuclear_attack_9157
I was quite amazed to find out about the current U.S. policy on the use of nuclear weapons.
Personally, I completely agree with the petition. Even though the risk of the U.S. using nuclear weapons on a non-nuclear state is very low, this ensures that some overzealous President cannot declare all-out nuclear war on countries - just to ensure that no more lives are lost in the war.
The use of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki demonstrates that a President is more than capable of such ill judgement. What amazes me is not Truman 's decision to use Atomic Bombs but his decision to use TWO of them. One would think that the use of just a single bomb should suffice to demonstrate to the Japanese the capability of the U.S. to cause "prompt and utter destruction".
Really, this decision must take the prize for the most ill-considered and brazen decisions by a leader. The probable second being Hitler's decision to invade Russia - another mind-bogglingly stupid decision- but that's for another day.
What's your take on the whole issue?
I was quite amazed to find out about the current U.S. policy on the use of nuclear weapons.
Personally, I completely agree with the petition. Even though the risk of the U.S. using nuclear weapons on a non-nuclear state is very low, this ensures that some overzealous President cannot declare all-out nuclear war on countries - just to ensure that no more lives are lost in the war.
The use of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki demonstrates that a President is more than capable of such ill judgement. What amazes me is not Truman 's decision to use Atomic Bombs but his decision to use TWO of them. One would think that the use of just a single bomb should suffice to demonstrate to the Japanese the capability of the U.S. to cause "prompt and utter destruction".
Really, this decision must take the prize for the most ill-considered and brazen decisions by a leader. The probable second being Hitler's decision to invade Russia - another mind-bogglingly stupid decision- but that's for another day.
What's your take on the whole issue?
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
Fireworks during Diwali
As children, the only festival we looked forward to was Diwali. The first attraction was, and if I am not mistaken even today is, fireworks.
Actually Diwali is celebrated twenty days after Dussehara. But for us, Diwali always started as soon as Dussehara ended.
It all used to begin with bringing the catalogs for fireworks from the local store and bargaining for budget with our parents. The prices always doubled from the previous year. So, we always had to fight for an increase in our budget. Finally, after a lot of struggle and discussions, one fine evening, we would go and buy the fireworks.
The next challenge was to dry them under the Sun for a few hours a day, in order to get the best results. The more the fireworks are dried the better they fired. Every one of us would take turns to gaurd the fireworks from rain, and thieves who mostly would be the servant maid's children.
And the next task would be dividing the fireworks equally among all of us. This was the trickiest and the most controversial part, and mostly my dad used to head this meeting to avoid quarrels among us.
I and my sisters invariably, had to part with the less ‘dangerous’ share, stuff like ‘sparkles’ ‘bhuchakras’ , ‘snakes’, ‘onion bombs’, some ‘packet bombs’ , 'color match boxes' 'Ropes', 'Pencils', 'vishnu chakras', 'black snake tablets'. Besides these, both my brothers would get to fire the bombs and rockets too.
I do not know, if any one remembers the 'black snake tablets' , which gave out black pungent smoke and black suit when lit and made a permanent mark on the floor. My mother always hated those things as she had to clean the black suit, and scrub the marks which were all over the house.
Yet another interesting thing, I remember is the Telephone bomb; we had to tie a string from one pole to another running through the telephone bomb. When lit with fire it moved from one end to the other with sparkles. We enjoyed doing that over weekends before the Diwali.
One year we celebrated Diwali in our grandmother’s village. There , we did not had all the fireworks that we had in Hyderabad, but it was fun and we learnt new things.
The most common fireworks, which all the village children lit are ‘divitilu’; a cotton cloth dipped in oil was wound to a stick and lit with fire. Carrying these in their hands, the children made all sorts of acrobatics. Some even caused fire accidents, which were inevitable as most of the houses had thatched roofs.
In addition to the 'divitilu' , there were the ‘rolu rokallu’, the crude substitutes for bombs . Gunpowder in small quantities used to be placed between a small iron mortar and pestle and was tightly secured with two long iron wires. With the help of these two iron wires it was, then swung in the air, and struck with force to ground which made the gunpowder to blast releasing huge sound.
And, another beautiful fireworks which I enjoyed in my granmother's village was the ‘vennela madugulu’; these I think were made with sulfur and phosphorous , which were packed in tubes of several layers of paper. When one end was lit with fire, drops of sparkling hot stuff fell to the ground causing the visual effect of moon light falling to ground. One had to hold these high above the ground in order to get the best effect.
Most of the fireworks in the villages were made at home by the family members and were exchanged for some thing else.
Just wanted to remind you, all the fun and enjoyment we all had back in India.
Actually Diwali is celebrated twenty days after Dussehara. But for us, Diwali always started as soon as Dussehara ended.
It all used to begin with bringing the catalogs for fireworks from the local store and bargaining for budget with our parents. The prices always doubled from the previous year. So, we always had to fight for an increase in our budget. Finally, after a lot of struggle and discussions, one fine evening, we would go and buy the fireworks.
The next challenge was to dry them under the Sun for a few hours a day, in order to get the best results. The more the fireworks are dried the better they fired. Every one of us would take turns to gaurd the fireworks from rain, and thieves who mostly would be the servant maid's children.
And the next task would be dividing the fireworks equally among all of us. This was the trickiest and the most controversial part, and mostly my dad used to head this meeting to avoid quarrels among us.
I and my sisters invariably, had to part with the less ‘dangerous’ share, stuff like ‘sparkles’ ‘bhuchakras’ , ‘snakes’, ‘onion bombs’, some ‘packet bombs’ , 'color match boxes' 'Ropes', 'Pencils', 'vishnu chakras', 'black snake tablets'. Besides these, both my brothers would get to fire the bombs and rockets too.
I do not know, if any one remembers the 'black snake tablets' , which gave out black pungent smoke and black suit when lit and made a permanent mark on the floor. My mother always hated those things as she had to clean the black suit, and scrub the marks which were all over the house.
Yet another interesting thing, I remember is the Telephone bomb; we had to tie a string from one pole to another running through the telephone bomb. When lit with fire it moved from one end to the other with sparkles. We enjoyed doing that over weekends before the Diwali.
One year we celebrated Diwali in our grandmother’s village. There , we did not had all the fireworks that we had in Hyderabad, but it was fun and we learnt new things.
The most common fireworks, which all the village children lit are ‘divitilu’; a cotton cloth dipped in oil was wound to a stick and lit with fire. Carrying these in their hands, the children made all sorts of acrobatics. Some even caused fire accidents, which were inevitable as most of the houses had thatched roofs.
In addition to the 'divitilu' , there were the ‘rolu rokallu’, the crude substitutes for bombs . Gunpowder in small quantities used to be placed between a small iron mortar and pestle and was tightly secured with two long iron wires. With the help of these two iron wires it was, then swung in the air, and struck with force to ground which made the gunpowder to blast releasing huge sound.
And, another beautiful fireworks which I enjoyed in my granmother's village was the ‘vennela madugulu’; these I think were made with sulfur and phosphorous , which were packed in tubes of several layers of paper. When one end was lit with fire, drops of sparkling hot stuff fell to the ground causing the visual effect of moon light falling to ground. One had to hold these high above the ground in order to get the best effect.
Most of the fireworks in the villages were made at home by the family members and were exchanged for some thing else.
Just wanted to remind you, all the fun and enjoyment we all had back in India.
NY mayor campaigning in Hindi
All,
Did you know that NY Mayor is campaining in Hindi and Urdu? Here is the link to the article in "Times of India"
The link is http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1281942.cms.
Happy Deepavali to all of you
Did you know that NY Mayor is campaining in Hindi and Urdu? Here is the link to the article in "Times of India"
The link is http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1281942.cms.
Happy Deepavali to all of you
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